Take Me Down
"Take Me Down" is a song from The Smashing Pumpkins' third studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It is one of two songs written by James Iha to appear on the album, the other being "Farewell and Goodnight".
Background[edit | edit source]
Billy Corgan explained in the liner notes of the 2012 reissue that "Take Me Down" was a turning point for Iha's involvement as a songwriter for the band. Corgan said he felt the song was a worthwhile inclusion from the very beginning, but thematically it did not fit alongside most of the other songs, leading to the decision to make it the concluding track on the first half of the album. According to Corgan, Iha "saw the demotion of his favored song to the back of the line as an unforgivable slight, killing his desire to contribute to the band as a writer of note from that moment on."[1]
Greg Leisz, who provided pedal and lap steel guitar on the song, said of his involvement: "I just got contacted. I forget if it was directly by James Iha or the management. It was just that Billy Corgan was allowing James to do one song on a double album. [Laughs] He was like, 'Here’s this carrot. You can do anything you want.' He asked me to come to Chicago and I was there. I overdubbed on the song. He had Flood and the other producer [Alan Moulder]. They had two different studios in the same complex. Billy was in one room working on his stuff and James was in this other room working on his song. It wasn’t much."[2]
Lyrics[edit | edit source]
take me down, to the underground
won't you take me down, to the underground
why oh why, there is no light
and if i can't sleep, can you hold my life
and all i see is you
take my hand, i lost where i began
in my heart i know all of my faults
will you help me understand
and i believe in you
you're the other half of me
soothe and heal...
when you sleep, when you dream,
i'll be there if you need me, whenever i hear you sing...
there is a sun, it'll come, the sun, i hear them call me down
i held you once, a love that once, and life had just begun
and you're all i see...
and trumpets blew, and angels flew on the other side
and you're all i see, and you're all i'll need
there's a love that god puts in your heart
Availability
| Title | Notes | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | Disc one – Dawn to Dusk | Studio |
| The Aeroplane Flies High | 2013 Reissue CD 2: 1979 | Box set |
Tour stats
- Total plays: 26 plays (22 full, 4 tease), 25 acoustic
- First performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1995-02-27 at Double Door, Chicago, IL, US
- Last performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1996-12-16 at SAP Center, San Jose, CA, US (tease)
- Last full performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1996-05-15 at O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK
Personnel[edit | edit source]
- James Iha – guitar, vocals, production, mixing, recording
- Billy Corgan – guitar, production, mixing, recording
- D'arcy Wretzky – bass
- Jimmy Chamberlin – drums
- Greg Leisz – lap steel guitar, pedal steel
- Flood – production, recording, mixing
- Alan Moulder – production, recording, mixing
- Chris Shepard – recording
- Barry Goldberg – recording, mixing assistance
- Dave Kresl – recording assistance
- Claudine Pontier – recording assistance
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Billy Corgan. Mellon Collie 2012 reissue liner notes
- ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/greg-leisz-guitarist-interview-1172942/